This will be a blog for Christians, for people who are part of a minority, for writers. I'm a poet, essayist, devotionalist, reviewer and writer of speculative fiction.Let God be true...and every man a liar.

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Friday, February 03, 2012

Remembering God's Faithfulness

Okay, so I have a major discipline problem and last night I realized I haven't been disciplined in keeping up my Book of Remembrance.

In the Bible, a book of remembrance is discussed. And the Bible is always telling us to "remember when the Lord did this" or "Remember how the Lord delivered you from so-and-so." In fact, holidays in the Bible are mainly about remembering. And (I'm way too lazy to look up the verses now) but there are countless verses in the Bible where not believing in God is equated with not remembering. For instance, "they forgot that he was their rock."

It's odd to think but in the Bible "lack of belief" is not about not rationale declarations and being super mentally-enlightened but about simply forgetting. The holidays of Passover and Purim are there to make us remember what God has done. I don't know what the holidays of other religions are about but in Judeo-Christianity, a holiday is not merely about remembering God's holiness or for us to be holy. Holidays are about remembering some aspect of a holy Personal ever-present all-knowing God's loving kind protection toward us.

Okay, so back to me. So although I always remember the angel preventing me from falling off the cliff on Bear Mountain, and the angel smiling at me beside my bed, and God's guidance in finding children who wander off (ah, i could tell you stories!) Or God protecting me from the knife, I had forgotten how wonderfully near He has been to me through helpful dreams.

So.......there I was in bed and I got to thinking about dreams. I write down most of my dreams. (Pretty faithfully so I'm disciplined in that....it's something I am wont to do.) But I got to thinking; "Am I deluding myself with all my concerns with my dreams?" What if some of my dreams are nothing more than my mind wanting to do this or fearing to do that, yadda yadda? I got to thinking, "God just isn't being near me. He doesn't help me at all. Why do I even trust in Him?" <-- yes, yes, I get this way sometimes and I forget all He has done for me.

Then suddenly... I REMEMBERED something that was really important in my life, something that had to do with a dream, something that shows how near God is to me and how faithful He is to me.

One night when my older son Logan, was about three or four, I dreamed of two kids from the neighborhood -- the son and nephew of my friend Jennie-- beating my son with iron batons, sticks, etc. It was quite sadistic and just odd. I woke up thinking, "Well, that was one strange dream." I didn't really know the kids and they never visited my house so I just thought it was weird to dream of them. LATER THAT DAY, who should come to my door but Jennie's son and nephew?????????????? They said, "Carole, we're playing cowboys and indians and we want someone to tie up. Can we play with Logan?" Logan, who was with me and who had heard them, said, "Mom, I want to go! Please, Please!" I looked at those kids and there was something very -- for lack of a better word-- "evil" about them. They looked like they were planning something evil. It was so evident to me. One of them had a little red ribbon which he gently brushed against my arm, "See," he said, "it doesn't hurt. We just want to play." These guys were about sixteen and eighteen and I wouldn't have trusted them from the sneaky looks on their faces. Upshot: I didn't send my son with them.

I remember this with a shudder. Because of the dream/premonition. My God had "gone before" and had protected me from the machinations of the enemy. Jennie's son turned out to live a good life. His cousin ...well...

I often think that some evil thing had placed the idea in them. And who knows what they were planning or what might have happened? Young folks are often very easy to tempt to do evil. My son might not be with me today or those two might have done something evil to him that would have tainted him. But God saved him, me, and Jennie's son from succumbing to whatever evil plot the devil had planned. The world is indeed an evil place and we need Someone Who Walks Ahead Of Us to protect us from the snares the devil has placed for us. Holy and Faithful is our Lord!

Of course, if I had been keeping up with actually writing down stuff in my Book of Remembrance (dreams coming true, flaky coincidences, visions coming true, etc) I wouldn't have had that moment of doubt. But I thank God that although the physical book of Remembrance wasn't updated or studied by me for so long...God is faithful to remind me of that incident.

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Carole McDonnell

Writer of The Constant Tower, Wind Follower, Spirit Fruit: Collected Speculative Fiction by Carole McDonnell, Seeds of Bible Study: How NOT to study the Bible. Soon to be published (if i stop procrastinating): Scapegoats and Sacred Cows of Bible Study, My Life as an Onion, Oreo Blues, The Boy Next Door From Faraway, The Temple of their Idols, Pen of the Ready Writer

My stories are included in various anthologies including:

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination edited by Warren Lapine, So Long Been Dreaming by Nalo Hopkinson. Griots, edited by Milton Davis and Charles Saunders; Griots II: Women of the spear, edited by Milton Davis and Charles Saunders; Steamfunk, edited by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade

Reviewer on Blogcritics, Reviewer and Religion writer on Examiner.com, reviewer on Curledup.com